Palazzo Zabarella in Padua is staging an exhibition of the works of a group of Italian artists considered to be the forerunners of the French Impressionist movement. The Macchiaioli, as they were dismissively called (inspired by the word “Macchia”, or “patch, blot”) emerged in the second half of the 19th century, after the Unification of Italy. The movement is less well known than the subsequent proliferation of Impressionism in France, a lacuna which the Padua exhibition will contribute to rectify.
Many of the group had fought in the Garibaldi campaign. They were revolutionaries and idealists, who rejected the conventional academic canons of the art of the period.
The movement, which was concentrated largely in Tuscany, grouped artists like Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, Telemaco Signorini, Odoardo Borrani, Vincenzo Cabianca and others, who met up in the celebrated Caffe Michelangiolo in Florence to exchange ideas and discuss politics. Most barely scraped a living with their paintings, but they were supported by wealthy patrons, like art critic Diego Martelli, who threw open his house at Castigliocello for their use, and the English noblewoman, Isabella Falconer, whose villa at Collegiliato near Pistoia, was an esteemed cultural hub.
The Macchiaioli artists painted scenes of country life, the market place and the seashore, strictly en plein air, in order to capture the true quality of natural light. They thus anticipated the works of artists like Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin.
The exhibition“I Macchiaioli: Capolavori dell'Italia che Risorge” (Masterpieces of Renewed Italy) runs until the 18th April 2021.
Info: Tel. +39.049.8753011 www.zabarella.it
